“LIKE OLD WAR-HORSE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 160, 27 September 1927, Page 13

“LIKE OLD WAR-HORSE”

SIR JOSEPH WARD AT HUNTLY SUPPORT FOR LIBERALISM (From Our Own Correspondent) HUNTLY, To-day. “That this meeting offers to Sir Joseph Ward a hearty vote of thanks and assures him that it has no confidence in the present Administration,” was the motitfn unanimously carried at Huntiy last evening. rpHE chairman of the Town Board, Mr. E. George, presided, and introduced Mr. Thomas Parker, the Liberal candidate, who addresses the electors to-night, to the assembly. Sir Joseph attacked the Government for not getting things done, in spite of a popular cry to the contrary, and twitted it with wasting £6O an hour of the people’s, money ( £25,200 to date this session). There was something radically wrong, he said, when it is on record that over 5,000 men had quitted their holdings in two years, the list including 400 ex-soldiers. There was never such a period of prosperity as the 22 years of the Liberal-Labour regime, but things were even worse when they took office than now. “We saved the country then, and we can do it again,” said Sir Joseph, amid applause. He condemned immigration in the winter months as bad business, and passed on to defence and Imperial questions. Would it be a sound policy, he asked, to be unprepared, when no two nations could agree at the present moment? He reminded his hearers that the great Gladstone introduced his best measure at 85 years of age, and humorously added, "I’ve a long * way to go yet. “Yes. I Qwn up to 60. What more can I do?” he asked, and added, “I’m just getting into trim and, like an old war-horse, I can’t keep out of it.” When leaving for Frankton-to catch the express, Sir Joseph was cheered by the big crowd. A FIGHTING SPEECH Mr. Walter Nash, national secretary of the Labour Party, also spoke at the railway gates, and delivered a fighting speech in the interests of the Labour candidate, Mr. Lee Martin. Labour will top the poll at Huntiy, but the Liberal candidate is coming into favour rapidly and will poll well. Sir Joseph Ward’s speech has materially altered public opinion, for the leaders of the parties in the past have ignored the district owing to its strong Labour views.